Tag Archives: history

The retconning of America

Posted on 13 October 2025 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

This past weekend, it was great fun to discover that the bookstore clerk-owner I know as “Steve at Tsunami” has written a new book!  It’s a fun book, too, a Jungian look at Star Wars, and on Saturday we attended … Continue reading →

Posted in history, US politics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Complicating the Story of Humanity

Posted on 1 January 2024 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

How did we get to be “civilized”? Here’s the big-picture story most of us have learned. For hundreds of thousands of years, humans lived in small bands that wandered the land, hunting for meat and fish, and foraging for nuts, … Continue reading →

Posted in history, narrative science | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Why do we have “human rights”?

Posted on 21 November 2023 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

Where did we get the idea that all people, not just those most like ourselves, should have basic, fundamental, “self-evident” rights? The historian Lynn Hunt has a theory – she credits the novelist Samuel Richardson. In her book, Inventing Human … Continue reading →

Posted in narrative science | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

From clickbait to transcendent meaning

Posted on 22 July 2022 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

This evening the weather was perfect for reading outside, and that’s what we were doing, enjoying the rustling leaves overhead, the trickle of water from our little fountain, and the antics of four of our cats, when my phone gave … Continue reading →

Posted in history, salience markers | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Every voice counts

Posted on 4 February 2022 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

I heard a fascinating talk today by Martha Bayless, who is one of our university’s folklore professors, and whose CV is full of awesome things, like medieval humor and games, food, and magic. She also curated the ongoing exhibit on … Continue reading →

Posted in history, US politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Why we keep hanging onto the past – and what that costs us

Posted on 10 December 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

For a couple days this week, I found myself highly motivated to hold my head relatively still, so as not to aggravate the massive headache that had wrapped itself relentlessly around it. I needed a fairly mindless way to pass … Continue reading →

Posted in history, US politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“Happily ever after!” The new GOP storyline

Posted on 27 June 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

On the one hand, it’s heartening that Republicans recently voted to make Juneteenth a new federal holiday. On the other hand, with all the Lost Cause handwringing during the Trump years, one wonders why. In a recent Slate interview, historian … Continue reading →

Posted in narrative science, US politics | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

A thousand years of grievance? Here???

Posted on 6 March 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

When I write about speeches that get people really riled up – as part of our research team’s ongoing study of genocide – one of my favorite examples is Slobodan Milošević’s Gazimestan speech. About a million Serbs showed up to … Continue reading →

Posted in history, narrative science, US politics | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Whose Law? Whose Order?

Posted on 8 January 2021 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

The shocking, yet not at all surprising, events in the U.S. Capitol this week revitalized a question I’ve been asking myself lately: How do we reconcile a president’s repeated call for “law and order” with his obvious delight in sheer, … Continue reading →

Posted in US politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

The burden of George R.R. Martin – and what suspense and its resolution mean for us in the real world

Posted on 22 November 2020 by Laura Akers, Ph.D.

I can still picture the display in our local university bookstore, sometime around 1999 – a major new fantasy series, with at least two books in print: A Game of Thrones, and A Clash of Kings. It looked medieval, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , | 1 Comment